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An FBI bomb specialist testified Tuesday that the bomb locked to the neck of pizza deliveryman Brian Wells was complex in design but made of uncomplicated, common materials, such as two Sunbeam kitchen timers, batteries, metal and Masonite fiberboard.Those materials can be bought at any number of places throughout the United States, said the witness, Kirk Yeager, Ph.D., a chemist."For the most part, they were so common, so ubiquitous, that it would be impossible to trace them back to anywhere," Yeager said.But he said the bomb was booby-trapped and could be disarmed only by a key. He said it was designed to explode inward, into the chest of the wearer -- Wells, who was killed by the blast. "They wanted it to fragment," Yeager said of whoever made the bomb.He provided no testimony about who made the bomb, which he said was custom built and was one-of-a-kind.Yeager has handled a number of high-profile cases for the FBI, including the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.Yeager was the final witness for the day Tuesday in the trial of Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, which resumes at 9:30 a.m. today in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin. Testimony started on Friday.Diehl-Armstrong is accused of the felonies of armed bank robbery, conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery and using a destructive device in a crime of violence. She faces a life sentence if convicted. Diehl-Armstrong said she was framed. -- Ed Palattella

This is a 2003 file photo of William Rothstein, photographed in Erie on Sept. 26, 2003.RICH FORSGREN/Erie Times-News

William A. Rothstein was trying to outwit the police.

He wanted investigators to think he had nothing to do with the "pizza bomber" case.

The evidence of his efforts is right there on the video, played in the trial of his former fiancee, Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong.

Rothstein died of cancer in July 2004, but his presence filled the courtroom via a television set.

Rothstein, a handyman, electrician and substitute science and industrial arts teacher, could be seen taking Erie police and state police on a tour of his Summit Township house.

The tour occurred days after he called police on Sept. 20, 2003, and reported he had a dead body in a freezer in his house's attached garage. The body was that of James Roden, Diehl-Armstrong's boyfriend.

As part of the search, the police found a suicide note, by Rothstein, in which he wrote about his intended demise, "This has nothing to do with the Wells case."

The note referred to the Aug. 28, 2003, bombing death of pizza deliveryman Brian Wells, who, the FBI would later determine, had a bomb locked to his neck at a secluded site next to Rothstein's house, in the 8600 block of Peach Street.

During the tour, one of the police officers asks Rothstein why he put Wells' name in the suicide note. Rothstein says he didn't want the police to get distracted as they investigated Roden's death, which Rothstein blamed on Diehl-Armstrong. He refers to what he says was "the (expletive) in the newspaper" about Wells' death.

"I wanted you guys to know so you wouldn't waste your time: 'Is this related to the Wells (expletive) or not?'" Rothstein said.

The police listen to Rothstein, and the tour of his house resumes. The police on the video continue to ask Rothstein about Roden's death, but not about the death of Wells.

Rothstein, though dead, was the main witness against Diehl-Armstrong on Tuesday, the third day of testimony in her trial in federal court in Erie.

She is accused of conspiring in the bank-robbery plot that ended in Wells' death, and she is accused of killing Roden as part of the conspiracy and to keep him quiet about the Wells' scheme. The grand jury that indicted Diehl-Armstrong in July 2007 named Rothstein, 60, as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Wells case. He admitted nothing to the FBI, who questioned him on his deathbed.

Diehl-Armstrong, 61, pleaded guilty but mentally ill in Erie County Court in January 2005 in Roden's death, and since then she has been serving a state prison sentence of seven to 20 years for third-degree murder.

In the federal case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Piccinini, the chief federal prosecutor in Erie, presented indisputable court records showing that Diehl-Armstrong pleaded guilty and was sentenced in Roden's death.

Piccinini also played the two videos of Rothstein for the jury. The first video was taken of Rothstein at what was then Diehl-Armstrong's junk-filled house at East Seventh and Bacon streets in Erie, where she killed the 45-year-old Roden by shooting him twice with a 12-gauge shotgun. The other video was of what was then Rothstein's equally messy house at 8645 Peach St. in Summit.

Rothstein's house sat next to a dirt road that leads to a television transmission tower -- the site where the FBI said Wells had the bomb locked to his neck before he robbed what was then the PNC Bank branch in Summit Towne Centre. The bomb exploded after Wells left the bank with $8,702 -- far less than the $250,000 he asked for.

The videos of Rothstein were surreal, largely because Rothstein is dead and largely because he spoke so matter-of-factly about Roden's death and disposing of the body at Diehl-Armstrong's house.

He said he wrapped the body in a tarp, secured the tarp with duct tape, drove the body to his house, carted it through his front door and used a pulley to put it in a chest freezer he purchased later.

"I grabbed him by the shoulder, whatever I could get ahold of," Rothstein, wearing his trademark bib overalls, says of Roden during the tour of Diehl-Armstrong's house.

He says he used hydrogen peroxide and other chemicals to scrub the blood from the house, and that Diehl-Armstrong helped.

"I didn't know what was taking her so long, but she said she was cleaning up blood," Rothstein says on the video.

During the tour of his house, Rothstein explains how he used a saw to cut up Diehl-Armstrong's shotgun into "slag" that he scattered about Erie County.

One of the police officers asks Rothstein how he got a mark on his wrist.

"When I cut myself, on purpose," Rothstein says. "See the blood?"

Also during the tour, Rothstein, who does not appear to be despondent, says, "You guys get my note?"

Rothstein's tone throughout the tours is practical and even lighthearted. He talks with the police about mundane topics, and he is clearly in charge as he details what he did and when to Roden. Rothstein does most of the talking; the police are taking notes.

The conversations, in hindsight, are chilling, knowing that Roden's body was found in a freezer and that Rothstein, according to evidence at Diehl-Armstrong's trial, had a hand in Wells' death less than a month before he took police on the tour of the houses.

Rothstein in one video refers to Diehl-Armstrong as he speculates about what he might find in one spot in the house. Rothstein says the contents might include liver, "Probably not a human liver, but liver for her dogs and cats."

"If there is liver in there, it would come from her," Rothstein says. "It couldn't come from the body, because the body was frozen. And I don't eat meat."

The "liver" turned out to be a blood clot from Rothstein, according to testimony.

During the tour of Diehl-Armstrong's house, Rothstein stops to tell the police he has no idea what substance is on a doorknob in front of him. He wonders whether it might be dog feces.

He then gets set to lead the police to another part of the house.

"Anything else here?" Rothstein asks. "Questions?"

ED PALATTELLA can be reached at 870-1813 or by e-mail. Get updates throughout the day at Twitter.com/GoErie.

Online Extras

An FBI bomb specialist testified Tuesday that the bomb locked to the neck of pizza deliveryman Brian Wells was complex in design but made of uncomplicated, common materials, such as two Sunbeam kitchen timers, batteries, metal and Masonite fiberboard.Those materials can be bought at any number of places throughout the United States, said the witness, Kirk Yeager, Ph.D., a chemist."For the most part, they were so common, so ubiquitous, that it would be impossible to trace them back to anywhere," Yeager said.But he said the bomb was booby-trapped and could be disarmed only by a key. He said it was designed to explode inward, into the chest of the wearer -- Wells, who was killed by the blast. "They wanted it to fragment," Yeager said of whoever made the bomb.He provided no testimony about who made the bomb, which he said was custom built and was one-of-a-kind.Yeager has handled a number of high-profile cases for the FBI, including the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.Yeager was the final witness for the day Tuesday in the trial of Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong, which resumes at 9:30 a.m. today in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin. Testimony started on Friday.Diehl-Armstrong is accused of the felonies of armed bank robbery, conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery and using a destructive device in a crime of violence. She faces a life sentence if convicted. Diehl-Armstrong said she was framed. -- Ed Palattella